Video: Yes on Washington Initiative 522An interview with Elizabeth Larder, Communications Director for Washington State Yes on 5232 Campaign, the campaign to label genetically engineered foods. <br><br> Larder discusses the reasons and needs for the ballot measure and debunks many of the lies put forth by the campaign to defeat it, financed mainly by Monsanto and pesticide companies. <br><br>About nine minutes in length. <a href="http://youtu.be/NFTHnTErCUo"><font color="#6633CC">Yes on 522</font></a>2013-11-02T07:35-07:00Jim Lockharthttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/11/425607.shtml
enBenton County Community Rights Coalition: Asserting Local Control of Food System<a href="http://bentonccrc.org/">Benton County Community Rights Coalition</a> (BCCRC) is a non-profit in Oregon formed to educate citizens about their legal rights to local community governance. The group is currently aiming to gather the needed signatures to qualify its Sustainable Food System Ordinance for the May 2014 ballot. <br><br> It's been over a year now since a small group of organic and conventional farmers, along with food advocates, came together to confront the issue of GMOs in their county. During that time, the BCCRC has built a coalition of supporters, hosted numerous public presentations as well as a community rights workshop taught by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund Democracy School, and co-sponsored the Willamette Valley Farm and Food Rights Summit. [...] <br><br>The Sustainable Food System Ordinance of Benton County establishes citizens' rights to: a sustainable food system; seed heritage; and clean air, water, and soil for sustainable agriculture in Benton County. The ordinance also prohibits unsustainable practices - like the planting of GMO's - that would violate those rights. <br><br>The BCCRC believes that as free citizens, we must elevate our community's rights above the corporate "rights" and state preemptions that currently usurp our ability to decide the face of agriculture in our own community. The Coalition not only asserts its community's rights to a sustainable food system, but also asserts the inalienable rights of nature to exist, persist and flourish.2013-08-17T23:31-07:00mountaincathttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/08/424607.shtml
enVideo: March Against Monsanto With PhotosPhotos and an 11 minute clip from the Portland March Against Monsanto.<br><br> <a href="http://youtu.be/RW8wLj_bnbM"><font color="#6633CC">March Against Monsanto</font></a> <br><br> Clip features a walk by of the entire march, punctuated by excerpts from an earlier speech by Paul Cienfuegos. Crowd size estimates varied, but I stood in the street and taped the entire march, 11 minutes in length. <br><br> In these excerpts from his speech, Cienfuegos relates how the Founding Fathers designed our Constitution to erect and protect the elite and also how our regulatory agencies continue that effort. Our country was designed to suit business and corporations and was not founded as a Democracy.<br><br> Photos are from the Rally and March. Portland outdid it's usual creativity with signage. One can glean the immensity of the protest message from these signs alone. <br><br>2013-06-03T11:26-07:00Jim Lockhart http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/06/423606.shtml
enMarch against Monsanto photosAbout 3,000 people took to the streets today in the &quot;March Against Monsanto&quot; as part of a global day of protest in countries around the world. Over 2 million people protested worldwide against Monsanto's rapacious practices to control seeds and produce genetically modified food. Critics of genetically modified food warn of its dangers, including serious health problems, destruction of bees, environment, organic food supplies and seeds. Many people are outraged that the giant corporation is scheming to control the seeds of many plants through patents. Many people are also angry that Congress recently rejected a bill requiring the labelling of genetically modified foods.
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<br />For more photos, go to <img src="/img/extlink.gif" border="0"/>&#160;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyofresistance/sets/72157633703646042/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyofresistance/sets/72157633703646042/</a>2013-05-26T13:11-07:00joyofresistance http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/05/423488.shtml
enMarch Against Monsanto! Saturday 11am @ Holladay ParkOn May 25th, activists around the world will unite to 'March Against Monsanto.' The event will begin at 11am Pacific time in US cities. Portlanders will begin the event in Holladay Park and march peacefully through the Lloyd District Neighborhood. Area community members are coming together via Facebook to join in the effort, exercise their First Amendment rights and bring awareness to the growing controversy over ethical concerns surrounding the political influence of the multinational biotech corporation Monsanto and the safety of the genetically modified foods it produces.
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<br />Thank you all so very much for your concern for the well being of not just yourself but the rest of the world. If you would like to volunteer, please send an email to <img src="/img/maillink.gif" border="0"/>&#160;<a href="mailto:marchagainstmonsantopdx@gmail.com">marchagainstmonsantopdx@gmail.com</a>. Again, thank you so very much!
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<br /> <img src="/img/extlink.gif" border="0"/>&#160;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/395696743860924/">https://www.facebook.com/events/395696743860924/</a>2013-05-24T09:52-07:00J Sizzlehttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/05/423464.shtml
enObama Approves GE Corn: Agent Orange Herbicide Ingredient Would be Widely Used WISCONSIN - January 4 - Over the holidays, the United States Department of Agriculture announced its approval of a novel strain of genetically engineered corn, developed by Monsanto, purportedly being "drought tolerant." <p>Despite receiving nearly 45,000 public comments in opposition to this particular genetically engineered (GE) corn variety (and only 23 comments in favor), the Obama administration gave Monsanto the green light to release its newest GE corn variety freely into the environment and American food supply, without any governmental oversight or safety tracking.</p><p><a href="http://www.cornucopia.org">www.cornucopia.org</a></p><p><b>[ Related:</b> <a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Bt_crops_failures_and_hazards.php">Bt Crops Failures & Hazards</a><br> | <a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Chinese_Dream_Come_True.php">Super-Rice without GM</a> ]</p>2012-01-09T08:10-07:00http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2012/01/413399.shtml
enAnti-GM protest shuts down BASF UK headquartersThis morning 30 protesters from Earth First! have shut down the BASF UK headquarters (1) at Cheadle Hulme near Manchester (2), to highlight the company's role in pushing GM onto our plates. BASF is planning to run the UK's only trial of GM crops this year, a trial of blight resistant potatoes. <p>The protesters arrived early in the morning at the flagship offices and have since been blockading the gate by sitting in front of it and locking on sing d-locks and other equipment. They are successfully preventing any staff from entering and are demanding the company pull out of GM immediately. They have also hung a giant 30 x 10ft banner reading "No To GM". The protesters are planning to blockade the gate for several hours.</p><p><a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/.html">uk indymedia</a></p>2008-05-23T12:02-07:00Eric Smithhttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/05/376026.shtml
enBiotech Bets on AgrofuelsThere is a new participant in the international deliberations on global warming and agrofuels: the biotechnology industry. The corporate giants of the genetics industry propose new technologies, including genetically modified trees, second generation cellulosic ethanol, and synthetic biology, to wean society off fossil fuels and fight climate change.
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<br />The implications for Latin America are breathtaking. The biotechnology industry's massive move into the energy sector brings together major social and ecological issues in the region, such as agrofuel promotion, genetically modified (GM) crops, and the growth of agribusiness monocultures. Latin American civil society's aspirations of land reform, environmental protection, alternatives to neoliberalism, and food and energy sovereignty, are at stake.
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<br /><img src="/img/extlink.gif" border="0"/>&#160;<a href="http://www.nwrage.org">http://www.nwrage.org</a>2008-04-26T05:23-07:00Carmelo Ruiz Marrero, Center for International Policy http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/374987.shtml
enGM Seeds Still Active in Soil 10 Years LaterA field planted with experimental oilseed rape a decade ago found transgenic specimens were still growing there despite intensive efforts over the years to remove the seeds, according to researchers in Sweden. This is the first time a genetically modified crop has endured so long and critics say it shows that genetically modified organisms cannot be contained once released. <p><i>"We should assume that GM organisms cannot be confined, and ask instead what will become of them when they escape."</i></p>2008-04-13T05:42-07:00http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/374542.shtml
enGM Seeds Still Active in Soil 10 Years LaterA field planted with experimental oilseed rape a decade ago found transgenic specimens were still growing there despite intensive efforts over the years to remove the seeds, according to researchers in Sweden. This is the first time a genetically modified crop has endured so long and critics say it shows that genetically modified organisms cannot be contained once released.
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<br />&quot;This study confirms that GM crops are difficult to confine,&quot; said Professor Mark Westoby, a plant ecologist from Macquarie University in Australia. &quot;We should assume that GM organisms cannot be confined, and ask instead what will become of them when they escape.&quot;2008-04-09T10:46-07:00REDORBIT NEWShttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/374426.shtml
enCampesino Activist Assassinated in Brazil by Transnational Corporation with Cascadia TiesA corporate agri-tech giant with its fingers prodding suspiciously around Cascadia has blood on its hands, and you should know about it. Agri-giant Syngenta has secretly tested its genetically modified crops on Oregon farmland, against the will of the majority of Cascadians. This same transnational corporation secretly helped to funnel more than $5 million into an Oregon election to defeat a ballot measure that would have required, for the first time in the nation, that GM crops be labeled before being foisted off on consumers. Bizarrely, Syngenta is also a sustaining member of the &quot;Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation,&quot; a pro-industry propaganda generator that seeks to colonize the minds of our children. And now, Syngenta is a corporate killer.2007-11-06T20:34-07:00http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/367986.shtml
enGenetic Engineering: Greenpeace Blockades Romanian Island!Greenpeace volunteers in Romania quarantined a whole island where GM soya crops are being grown, which is illegal under EU law. Vehicles leaving Braila island were hosed down by people wearing white biohazard suits to prevent genetic contamination spreading to the mainland. Even a donkey and cart were washed and made GM-free!
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<br />Greenpeace, 5 September 2007
<br /> <img src="/img/extlink.gif" border="0"/>&#160;<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/gm/gm-quarantine-in-romania-20070905">http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/gm/gm-quarantine-in-romania-20070905</a>
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<br /><img src="/img/extlink.gif" border="0"/>&#160;<a href="http://www.nwrage.org">http://www.nwrage.org</a>2007-09-20T06:36-07:00Greenpeacehttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/365456.shtml
enMonsanto Buys Terminator Technology: U.S. approves take-over of seed companyOn June 1, 2007 the United States Justice Department gave the green light for Monsanto's $1.5 billion takeover of the world's largest cotton seed company, Delta & Pine Land (D&PL) -- the US company that developed and patented the world's first Terminator seed technology. <p>Terminator seeds are genetically engineered to be sterile after first harvest and were developed to stop farmers from saving seed.</p><p>"As the biggest seed company in the world, Monsanto stands to gain the most by incorporating Terminator technology into all its seeds, thus forcing farmers to buy new seed every year" said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.</p>2007-06-10T12:36-07:00http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/06/360821.shtml
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